


Roses Can't Survive Winters

by TopazScorpio2



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Depression, Drug Use, Mental Health Issues, Sad, Suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:14:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29962830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TopazScorpio2/pseuds/TopazScorpio2
Summary: What if Ruby hadn't transitioned so well to Beacon. What if she hadn't been accepted into her team. What if she had fallen apart. What if she was pushed to the brink and stared over the edge into the darkness. This fic like so many others tries to answer those questions.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this has been up on FF.net for a ling time, was actually the first story I posted and now I've finally brought it over(been meaning to do it for a while). Hope you enjoy anyway

**Roses Can't Survive Winters**

**RWBY belongs to RoosterTeeth, I own nothing. Yadadadadadada, Enjoy.**

Her team hadn't noticed her in such a long time. They hadn't looked at her, cared for her. Her own sister hadn't hugged her or even held her in what felt like forever. She could barely remember those hugs anymore. All she could vaguely remember was the warmth. They had felt so warm and comforting. She'd been cold for so long now. She even missed how Weiss would give out to her. They at least had a connection back then. Now she interacted with Ruby with indifference like Ruby was just an ant who could die or live and it wouldn't matter to her in the slightest. Every time they talked Ruby felt like she became smaller every time and that she wasn't needed for the team. Blake had opened up to them so much in the beginning. Ruby had felt like she was really helping her but as time went on, she realised something. She didn't confess to Ruby, she had confessed to her team Ruby had just happened to be there. Ruby hadn't realised something at first but as time went on, she noticed it. Blake actively avoided her and only ever seemed to confide in Yang and Weiss. She would stay in her little groups with her own team and even on occasion JNPR and SSSN. But never Ruby. Whenever she had tried to connect with her Faunas teammate, she had been shown the cold shoulder and Blake would get away from her as soon as possible. That's when the coldness had first seeped away and she only felt numb. All Ruby would be left with was her shattered attempt and more loneliness. So she stopped trying because she couldn’t take being shattered even once more. That was the only thing she could rely on these days to be there for her. Loneliness.

It was always there for her. When she awoke, when she ate, when she studied, when she fought, when she rested her head to sleep at night and even when she was surrounded by bustling, busy and happy people going about enjoying their lives. Jealousy used to hang off her like a stink as well but eventually that left her as well just like everything else. She was jealous of how other people could be happy but now she just felt like they lived in another world. Something she wasn't allowed to touch, like she was looking at the world through a window. Maybe she just wasn't important enough. Not even JNPR seemed to notice her. The kind and caring Pyrrha never saw her sadness or gave her, her help. Maybe she wasn't worth her kindness or even her pity. The ever-observant Ren didn't even notice so maybe there was nothing for him to see, maybe Ruby was just being her usual stupid and selfish self. The joyful friendly Nora never tried to be her friend, maybe because she was not worth anything as a friend. And Jaune only ever seemed to see her when he needed help. Maybe that was all she was here on Remnant for, to help others and nothing else, even if she was useless at that. Not even the kindest people who helped everyone they could, could see her.

She had hoped maybe when she came to Beacon, she had hoped her fighting skills would help her get together with people but no matter who she beat or how many Grimm she cut down her peers never looked past her age. She was nothing more than a kid or a nuisance. She missed her friends from Signal. They had understood her. They had embraced her, been her friends, been there for her. She had silently cried herself to sleep so many times just looking at pictures or texts from them of all the new things they were doing and enjoying, all the new experiences and people. She just wished she could go back to them. Go back to signal. Go back to the way things used to be when she was happy. But she couldn’t could she. Time travel wasn’t real and they had surely already replaced useless her with someone so much better. The workload didn't help. Two years of work to catch up on, and all the extra work she had to do as leader or just to be in Beacon. Her brain was always so tired and sluggish from having to keep up with her workload and everyone's expectations. At the end of the day all she had by her side was her loneliness and fatigue.

She had hoped when she went home maybe her relationship with Yang would go back to normal but Ruby quickly learned there was a new normal. Yang had spent the whole Summer with either Blake in Menagerie or with Weiss in Atlas. Her Dad had been off on missions the whole time leaving her alone in the house. She had clutched to the straws that she could have Zwei as her best companion but Yang had even taken Zwei with her. Ruby had nothing to do but spend all day training but she couldn't train all day long (no matter how much she tried to) and she was left with so much time to just sit and wallow in her misery.

By the time she went back to Beacon she had given up hope of things getting better with her team. When she had first come to Beacon her silver eyes had glowed brightly and filled with hope but now as she re-entered a year later you wouldn't recognise them, they were like a dull steel. And now as it was Christmas time and everyone was off enjoying the festivities, Ruby sat on a bench out in the cold avoiding all the happiness that others got to enjoy. She had lowered her aura on a whim, or maybe something else had pushed her to do it. Something deep inside her. As she sat in the bench, she felt the snow fall on her skin. She felt the ice-cold air bite her and burn her skin and extremities. It felt nice to feel that burn. To feel something at all that replaced the numbness. To feel something that wanted to envelope her and swallow her whole. She liked the thought of that. Her lips turned up at the edges and she giggled for the first time in a long time. In what felt like decades. She liked the feel on her bare skin. She deserved to enjoy this right. She removed her boots and leggings first. Then her corset and her bra leaving her top bare. then her skirt and panties leaving her bare. As every piece was removed it was just as quickly replaced by a patchwork of snow and ice that knitted together to create her new coverings. For each piece of clothing that left her body she felt the weight of her expectations, duties and failings go with them. Except for her cape which remained lying on her shoulders like the hands of someone who cared for her. But she didn't wrap it around her or use it to protect her from the freezing weather. Because the deathly chill was like a second pair of hands embracing her. It felt nice to be enveloped again, to be wanted by something. She sat there nearly bare as the day she was born and let nature envelop her like she was its child. She never rose her aura or tried to fight it off. She shivered and sneezed, goose bumps ran across her body and her already porcelain white skin became ever paler somehow. She knew where she was headed in the back of her mind but why stop she thought. I won't be missed, my absence will change nothing. There was nothing for her anymore but suffering. She was a weight on humanity. So why not drift off peacefully into the snow. The snow that was accepting her like no one else had. That sounded so nice and peaceful. She was going to treat herself just this once and only this once.

She could faintly hear joyous sounds from the festivities probably from her old friends they had always been the loudest and the happiest at least when she wasn’t around and for once she didn't care, for the first time the sound didn't hurt her or break her heart as it had so many times before. As she sat there, she accepted and came to peace with herself being alone and closed her eyes, let out one last big breath that turned the air in front of her misty and let her body succumb to the cold as she drifted off happy, genuinely happy for the first time in what had been forever for her. She was found hours later by blonde, white- and black-haired trio of strangers with a smile on her face they had never seen the likes of before.

**This was actually the first fic I posted on FF.net and I've been meaning to bring it over for ages. Any criticism welcomed and thank you for reading. Topaz out.**


	2. Withered Gardens

**Withered Gardens**

Pyrrha stood in the gym in her usual training outfit. Her body covered in a thick film of sweat making her shaking form all the more noticeable.

She stood wailing away at a punching as she had been the past six hours. She refused to stop or to even lighten her blows, she was like a woman possessed by the devil. She felt ready to collapse and her arms were dead, feeling more like heavy metal poles.

Except for her knuckles. She could feel those as they burned and seared in pain every time she struck the bag. The skin on her knuckles was gone, ripped away and both her hands and the bag were slick with blood.

But she didn’t stop. She couldn’t stop. Even in the brief recesses between strikes when the pain died down slightly and her body rested in its stance, her mind and heart would turn against her. Images of that small and pale body covered in only a thin bedsheet would flash across her vision. Every time she saw it, it hurt so bad it felt like she was seeing it for the first time all over again. She could hear Nora’s sobs in her ears and Ozpin telling them the news on repeat. Over and over and over and over and over and over again. Like some sick joke on loop.

She couldn’t stop. She wouldn’t stop. Not if it meant going through that. She would go until her body gave. Maybe then in her unconsciousness she would be free from dealing with this. Yeah. For now she just had to keep going. If she pushed hard enough, she’d be safe from the visions.

If you stood outside that gym in the dead of the night you would hear nothing except wet slaps against leather and the heavy grunts and moans from the hoarse mouth of a woman. And if you listened real close then in the small moments between strikes you could hear her near silent sobs.

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Blake shivered as she felt the cold wind cut into her. She rubbed her hands up and down her bare biceps trying to keep herself warm. It was so cold. She hated it.

The cold, it dug into her and surrounded and wrapped around her whole being like a far too tight blanket, trying to smother her, never letting up for even a moment.

She could faintly hear the sound of sirens, cars and loud drunken shouts coming from the entrance to the alleyway. Her ears were flat to her head as she tried to nurse herself to sleep. But every time her eyes closed to rest, they shot back open as she saw her old leader on that bench all over again.

She felt the wind chill her that bit more every time she did, as if it was trying to punish her. She hadn’t slept in well over a day. Not since she had seen what she had seen.

She reached up to feel her left eye which was shut due to the swelling and had a deep purple shade to it. She felt it sting as tears pricked her eyes. She was still struggling to believe Yang had done this to her. They had been so close. She thought that her and Yang had been something more. Something special. She had really thought, but maybe she had been hoping beyond hope and only fooling herself. She had been happy.

After so long she had gotten her perfect life that she had strived so hard to achieve. And out of nowhere she had lost it all in a moment. In a single moment when they had turned to glance at the person on the bench.

Why would Ruby do this to her. She hadn’t suffered like she had. She hadn’t gone through the hells she had. She had no reason to do what she had. Why had a girl with a perfect life killed herself and ruin the lives of so many who had worked and suffered for so long. What gave her the right.

Because of her Blake had lost the person most precious to her and was now sitting in an alleyway in Vale trying to find comfort in sleep. She wanted so badly to go back to Beacon but knew she couldn’t.

All because of that brat.

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Yang felt herself groggily wake up from her fitful sleep. She checked the clock next to her bed to see she’d managed to get around 5 hours of sleep. Not bad, more than she usually got anyway. She shook her head to try disperse her thoughts and wake herself up. Despite having just had the best sleep she’d had lately, her eyes still had dark heavy bags under them.

Her body went through the motions of her morning routine, her thoughts elsewhere and nowhere. She wasn’t pulled back to the real world until she noticed her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

Her whole life she’d been the prettiest girl in class. Her bright as the sun smile, upbeat and happy persona that could challenge a dog’s, flawless skin she’d worked hard on and her lilac eyes that could draw anyone into them, her powerful and toned physique and of course her perfect wavy golden locks.

The girl looking back at her was unrecognisable to her old self. Red puffy eyes above dark heavy bags, a stream of old tears that had left their mark, creases across her once baby smooth skin, her skin looked dry and far, far too pale. Her hair was matted and messy, seemingly missing its old gleam and shine. Worst of all her eyes that were once so vibrant were now dead and lifeless, looking almost more that they should be on a corpse.

Just like the one she’d had to bury over a month ago. As the thought crossed her mind the old stream of dry tears was wettened with new salty ones. Her expression didn’t change at all even as the tears began to freely flow as her mind flashed back to the funeral.

Before her mind could delve further into those dark places she reached into the cabinet and pulled out an orange bottle that rattled far too loudly for her, in her shaking grasp. She struggled with the white cap but eventually managed to open it. Within seconds the lip of the bottle was kissing her own lips and she was swallowing the pills inside. They went down her throat with a practised ease.

She collapsed into the corner of the room trying to keep the bad memories away until her pills kicked in. She sighed out in relief when she felt the pills finally begin to take their effect and help her forget. She placed the bottle into her pocket for later and closed the cabinet. Taking one last look inside the cabinet, at the dozens of empty and filled orange pill bottles and a handful of syringes.

Before the cabinet shut close Yang’s, hand snapped in grabbing a bottle and stuffing them in her pocket as she started to go about her day. Thinking of nothing at all. Especially not Ruby.

The sounds of Yang happily starting her day could be heard from the bathroom, even her whistling and giggling. 

**Authors notes: I suppose this is long overdue. I actually had all this written basically a week after I’d released the first chapter but I originally planned to do the rest of team RWBY together in one chapter. I got Blake and Yang done and was happy with them but for the life of me I couldn’t do one for Weiss and anything I did manage I hated. So I was stubborn and am still rewriting Weiss to this day but yesterday I realised that the piece I’d done for Pyrrha worked quite well so I thought I’d just put Yang, Blake and Pyrrha into one chapter and if I ever finished it put Weiss into her own chapter. So anyway hoped you enjoyed this and any criticism negative or positive is welcome. RWBY belongs to Roosterteeth, I don’t own shit blah blah blah. Topaz out.**


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